Saturday 27 July 2013

Stonehenge. Nothing to do with Druids.

I'm sure everyone has been delighted by the neolithic theme of the last few posts. So we just had to visit the most famous of them all,

along with what seemed like a meeting of the United Nations. It was a case of spot the Brit.


Stonehenge, the place that gave it's name to "Henge" structures throughout Britain. Except that Stonehenge isn't a henge. It's a stone circle. It's a fantastic place. Unfortunately, because of the pressure of the number visitors, you don't get the atmosphere of the place. We visited it one autumn day nearly forty years ago, we were the only people there, there were no restrictions and you could wander amongst the stones, it felt special then. Now it might as well be Disney.

The Slaughter Stone, so called because at one time it was believed that it was a Druidic sacrificial altar where, presumably, helpless virgins were slaughtered. It is just another fallen stone and Stonehenge had been out of use for over a thousand years before the Druids turned up. Good story though. Modern druidism and paganism are the invention of some rather unpleasant characters in the 19thC.  Not knocking them though, they've got a good scam going, selling bits of rock, sorry, crystals, and various useless "cures" to the gullible. "Never give a sucker an even break", as W.C. Fields once said.

 No comment on this one, except that the young lad had the sort of look on his face that said, "Is she for real?"

Meanwhile the A303 was as usual on a summer weekend.
Today the marina has a mini beer festival so I must finish this post and prepare.

Watch this space..........




4 comments:

Visit Stonehenge said...

Like the Stonehenge post!

Graham and Jill Findlay said...

Thank you, Stonehenge.

Anonymous said...

Just to point out that the lady with the cloak and staff isn't a druid, she's a shaman.

Graham and Jill Findlay said...

I think you've put two too many letters on the end of sham.